Thinking of buying the Xerox 700

[John W.]

Hi all

Im brand new in here but I have been reading a lot of your posts.

I have a small printshop i Denmark and so far my only colourprinter is a KM C650. Its pretty crappy though and Im not satisfied with it at all. I know its an officeprinter and I looking to purchase a production machine. The b/w part is very crappy and allmost useless. I have heard that its a known issue for KM that they cant print very good b/w on their colourprinters?

Im running about 50-100k A4 a month and increasing. A lot of it is on 300gsm. The C650 dosnt do the job very well - but I work around it.

I have been looking at the Xerox 700 and went to a demo and was pretty impressed - I would like to have autoduplex 300gsm though and then have to "upgrade" it to a 5000AP. Any thoughts on the image quality compared to the 700? ( I have read that the 5000 is oily and very blank )

I have a demo on the KM6500 next week - any owners that have some input that they would like to share?

Any thoughts and opinions are apreciated.

[Milo Wilson]

I personally(?) think that the 5000 is superior to the 700 in image quality. You could purchase a 5000 used/refurbished and later you could update the 5000 to 5000ap with a software update and productivity pack (upgrades to the fuser for all paper same speed)

[John W.]

Thx for your reply - here in DK there isnt many used 5000 around though.

Have u any experience on both the 700 and the 5000 ?

[John W.]

Just spoke to the sales man at xerox and he said that the 700 is almost as good as the 5000....? Any thoughts on that? I havnt seen a demo on the 5000 yet - but he told me that its not beeing produced any more.

[X33]

Quality is subjective. It is up to you to decide which one is better for your needs.

[John W.]

Im aware of that - was just hoping for some feedback on the machines in the long run - how is the consistency

im also considering the KM6500 but was told it has problems running pure b/w

[ShortRunMagazines]

I have the X700 through a local dealer... One thing to note, if you are looking at purchasing the X700, MAKE SURE it is through Xerox Direct. My dealer is claiming they are losing several thousand dollars a month on my machine. (We run about 150,000 12x18 sides a month.) We have had to get a lawyer to "remind" the dealer they are under contract (cost so far, $2,500US).

From what I can gather, dealers' toner costs are in line for office environments, not Print For Pay. That being said, other then the dealer issues and some oddities that have started recently (like the Free Flow printing blank calibration sheets) I love the unit.

Due to the dealer issues, I am forced to replace the X700 with a DC5000 from Xerox Direct. I am not a huge fan of the fuser oil, but the reliability is there and the quality is certainly sellable. (Note: the X700 payment is $4.62US/month cheaper then the used DC5000 payment!)

I've run the 5000 (not the AP) in the past and have no complaints (except for the CREO front end). Our 5000 is coming with a Free Flow so we shall see how that goes. (Also, I've heard the AP Upgrade kit is about $5,000US. We are getting that after the 5000 has been installed.)

I can say, if you are doing a lot of 80#CVR and above, go for the 5000. The 700 is pretty good on the 80# but really starts to move around on 100#. Not to mention the hassle of manual duplex.

I have just over a half million 12x18 clicks on the 700 and it's already starting to show it's age a bit (nothing major yet, just not as rock solid as it once was).

Just my thoughts... Hope it helps.

[John W.]

I have the X700 through a local dealer... One thing to note, if you are looking at purchasing the X700, MAKE SURE it is through Xerox Direct. My dealer is claiming they are losing several thousand dollars a month on my machine. (We run about 150,000 12x18 sides a month.) We have had to get a lawyer to "remind" the dealer they are under contract (cost so far, $2,500US).

From what I can gather, dealers' toner costs are in line for office environments, not Print For Pay. That being said, other then the dealer issues and some oddities that have started recently (like the Free Flow printing blank calibration sheets) I love the unit.

Due to the dealer issues, I am forced to replace the X700 with a DC5000 from Xerox Direct. I am not a huge fan of the fuser oil, but the reliability is there and the quality is certainly sellable. (Note: the X700 payment is $4.62US/month cheaper then the used DC5000 payment!)

I've run the 5000 (not the AP) in the past and have no complaints (except for the CREO front end). Our 5000 is coming with a Free Flow so we shall see how that goes. (Also, I've heard the AP Upgrade kit is about $5,000US. We are getting that after the 5000 has been installed.)

I can say, if you are doing a lot of 80#CVR and above, go for the 5000. The 700 is pretty good on the 80# but really starts to move around on 100#. Not to mention the hassle of manual duplex.

I have just over a half million 12x18 clicks on the 700 and it's already starting to show it's age a bit (nothing major yet, just not as rock solid as it once was).

Just my thoughts... Hope it helps.

Thx for your thoughts!

A few questions. What is the free flow? A rip? Im going with the external fiery. Read somewhere that is makes the print less glossy than the creo.
and what is 80#CVR?
Have you any experience on the KM6500?

[ShortRunMagazines]

80#CVR == 220gsm
Free Flow is Xerox's Branded RIP
Don't know on the Glossiness of the Fiery vs. Creo.

I used a KM6500 when they were brand new and hated it. I have heard it has had all of the issues I had addressed since then, but I am still partial to Xerox.

[John W.]

Let me know how you find the free flow - cheers shortrun